By Ruvesen Naidoo
To celebrate Heritage and Tourism Month, Grocott’s Mail has partnered with Makana Tourism for a four-part ‘Feature Friday’ series. The articles will provide a description of different tourist attractions in and around Makhanda in honour of Heritage and Tourism Month. The series focuses on four key tourist categories: History, Wellness, Outdoors, and Food.
Situated within the Makana region in the Eastern Cape, Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown) offers a wide range of tourist attractions. Makana Tourism Marketing and Communications officer Prudence Mini explains that there are hidden gems in the city, such as an actual stream of drinking water running underneath the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. George, located at High Street, which explains why a small military village settled in that area in 1812.
As we celebrate Heritage and Tourism Month, Makana Tourism and Grocott’s Mail extend an invitation to every one to break free from their daily routines and delve into our shared history and heritage.
As a chosen tourist attraction under the category about ‘History’, Dr Tom Jeffrey, principal curator at the Amazwi museum, shared information with Grocott’s Mail on The Eastern Star Press Museum, located at 4 Anglo African Street, which first appeared in 1871.
The Eastern Star Press Museum is a satellite museum to the Amazwi South African Literature Museum and offers tourists a glimpse into the history of printing in South Africa. The museum highlights the important role of the Press in communities and how it shapes culture and communication in South Africa. The museum houses a display gallery of 19th-century printing equipment and a 120-year-old Wharfdale press.
Jeffrey says, “The Eastern Star is the forerunner to today’s Star newspaper. The building in Anglo-African Street that houses the museum now was once a St Andrew’s College classroom. The original Eastern Star occupied the building that is now occupied by ABSA Bank on High Street.
The Eastern Star Press Museum is open by appointment only; bookings can be made through the Amazwi South African Museum of Literature.
On the importance of preserving cultural heritage, Mini says, “Heritage and Tourism Month also helps promote positive tourism, which in turn benefits our local economy. So, get out there and explore, and make sure to take plenty of pictures to remember your adventure and share with the world!”
The series also features a competition for keen tourists to get involved in which readers must choose a word from each of the four-part article series that they think fits the blank spaces in a sentence that underpins the theme of Makana’s Tourism, a celebration of heritage and tourism month.
The sentence is:
_____the_____behind_____and its extraordinary_____experiences.
Participants are encouraged, at the end of ‘Feature Friday’, to email Makana Tourism at info@grahamstown.co.za with their idea on the complete sentence for a chance to win a trip for two to a Game Reserve. The first email received with the right answer will win the getaway trip.
At the end ‘Feature Friday’, an update will be given on the location of the Game Reserve. The competition closes on 2 October 2023.
